Now, you are probably starting to understand just how powerful your thoughts are.

I want you to take a minute or two now to think about what you usually think about. Yep, that’s right, I want you to THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT…

…keep thinking!

How’d you go… and be honest, are the majority of your thoughtspositive or negative?

Ok…Now what I want you to do is focus on the life you dream of living…

… what does that life look like, what are you wearing, what kind of car are you driving, what house do you live in, where do you live, are you happy, are you laughing, how do you walk, how do others see you, what do you spend your days doing?

The power is in the DETAILS, the more details the better.

If our brain cannot differentiate between what is real and what isn’t AND…

If 91% of our thoughts are repeated on a daily basis AND…

If we attract what we focus on…

…then wouldn’t it be super powerful if you were INTENTIONAL with your thoughts?

If you controlled your thoughts so they worked for you to attract the life you actually WANT to be living?

I know my answer.

Now, before I sign off, I am going to ask you to do me a favour…

… For the next week in the 5 minutes before you go to sleep and in the first 5 minutes of waking, take 100% control of your thoughts.

ONLY think positive, abundantthoughts, picture in as much detail as possible that dream life you were picturing earlier.

Just 5 minutes twice a day, for one week…can you do that?

Awesome!

I promise you, if you can commit 10 minutes a day to really controlling your thoughts, you will start to attract MASSIVE CHANGES IN YOUR LIFE.

Happy Monday!

Be awesome and let me know how you go.

Billy ‘thought-provoking’ Rickman.

P.S If you want to harness the power of your thoughts, shift your mindset and attract abundance in your life, then book in a free 30 minute business strategy session with one of our coaches.

We have all heard of the popular neurotransmitter that everyone is talking about (including myself)…yep, you guessed it, dopamine…

…And rightfully so. This chemical means serious business!

It makes sure we get stuff done, it focusses us on our goals and keeps us motivated and inspired! It also keeps us constantly searching for that next hit.

So who likes to do lists…? Yeah, me too!

That satisfying feeling you get when you cross things off your list…yep you guessed it again, dopamine.

In the right balance dopamine can be extremely beneficial to our lives, but dopamine has a dark side that most aren’t talking about…

Did you know some of the other things that release dopamine include, alcohol, sex, nicotine, gambling, and even your cell phone!

If unbalanced, dopamine is extremely dangerous and it’s destructive!

This is because dopamine is highly, highly addictive.

It’s no wonder that this chemical can lead us into a false sense of achievement, going about our day creating and ticking off the items on our to do lists, constantly chasing that next hit of dopamine, but never progressing too far forward.

Tony Robbins explains ‘most people mistake movement for achievement.’ Yep, once again, dopamine is the culprit.

So what do we do?

We have to SHIFT our focus and become obsessed with outcomes instead of activities.

We must be more intentional with our movements to ensure they are bringing us closer to the outcomes we desire.

This way we can use dopamine to our advantage and not let it trick us into thinking we are progressing forward.

So now we know how powerful dopamine really is…use dopamine as your superpower and make it your advantage over your competitors!

Be awesome!

Billy ‘Superman’ Rickman

P.S If you want to see what your true potential could be by shifting your focus to true outcomes, then book in a free 30 minute business strategy session with one of our coaches.

The other day, someone asked a question of whether they should call out their competitors for buying cheap products overseas when they purchase theirs locally.

The answer is that both options have pros and cons, but the number one thing you shouldn’t do is dwell on the decision.

You either do it. Or you don’t.

Dwelling on decisions and stalling on action, can be the number one thing that causes your business to stall, and here are 5 reasons why:

1. It distracts you from your bigger goals – Every business should have one or two major goals that they are trying to achieve at any given time. The major goals in your business are those that will make the biggest impact and move the needle the most. Often times, the decisions we dwell on, are not those in relation to the major goals and they are usually smaller decisions that are not overly impactful in the greater scheme of things. Dwelling on these, takes you off course, and ends up causing you to lose focus on the things that are most important.

2. It uses up cognitive resources – We all know that as an entrepreneur, most days you come home from the day exhausted and fatigued. Depending on your industry, it can be physically, mentally or both. The thing is, we only have a finite reserve of energy and we want to make sure that we are using our energy for the things that are serving us to reach our goals. Using mental energy to dwell on decisions is never going to benefit your productivity and it will almost certainly end up delaying your results.

3. You miss other opportunities – The Reticulator Activator System (RAS) is a bundle of nerves at our brainstem that filters out unnecessary information so the important stuff gets through. Basically, it’s the reason why when you buy a new car, all of a sudden you see the same car everywhere! The RAS is tuned into filtering out things that are important and things that aren’t. When you focus on something, the brain sees it as important and looks for other things related to that. If it’s not your focus, then the brain filters it out. When you are dwelling on decisions of the past or stuck in dwelling on a current decision, your brain is focused on that, and is missing the countless other opportunities that are passing you by on a daily basis!

4. You lose momentum – Momentum is hard to get and easy to lose. Momentum is also the thing though, that when you do have it, it will turn you into a business superhero! For momentum to take place, it involves two ongoing steps – keep taking action and keep getting results… whether they are small or big! You cannot get, or be in momentum when you’re standing still. So whilst you’re stuck or you’re dwelling on a decision, you are in effect standing still and definitely out of momentum.

5. The moment passes – An opportunity can sometimes be fleeting. Becoming a YouTube star when it was first launched. Executing on email marketing before it got saturated. Buying a house in an area before it booms. Opportunities come and go, but real opportunities usually don’t last long and are either taken by someone else or the market catches up. Whenever you dwell on a decision, just know that the opportunity you’re dwelling on, may just pass you by.

I hope this convinces you to start making bolder and more swift decisions. You’re never going to get it right 100% of the time, but I can promise you that you will achieve more, get more gains and get closer to your goals by being a rapid and decisive action taker, instead of dwelling on your decisions.

There was a time not so long ago, that I was so broke I couldn’t afford to put milk on my cereal.

Yep thats right, one morning I had to choose between putting milk on my son’s cereal or my own because I couldn’t afford any more milk.

Of course I chose his, and that morning I had water on my Weet-Bix, and this story always serves to remind me of how bad things were… and how far I’ve come.

What happened at the time, was that somebody I did a business deal with, really screwed me over and left me with hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt because of their failure to pay.

I had stupidly signed an agreement as a guarantor on a contract and when they fell through, I was left with all the debt!

The more I am in business, the more I realise these things happen, and as much as we try to control things and protect ourselves, some times we just learn lessons the hard way.

I’ve wrote about this story a few times in more detail, but the point of this blog today is not about what happened in this moment, but about what I did to come back.

One of the things Im passionate about in entrepreneurship is being a problem solver.

In business, I’ve never met a successful person yet that didn’t have an innate ability to look at any problem in the business – no matter how big or small – and always have the mindset of ‘let’s find a way to solve it.’

I think by-in-large, this is what separates successful entrepreneurs from those that don’t make it.

I posted on my Facebook page about this last week, and it amazed me how many people reached out and told me how much it hit home!

This mentality goes for anything in business. For example, if you found your new perfect location or you need to make an extra $20,000 this month.

Successful people don’t look at opportunities or targets and say I cant make it happen… they instead look at them and say how do I make it happen?!

This mindset and this way if thinking is exactly what I had at my worst moment, when I couldn’t afford milk, and it’s what allowed me to keep going and move forward to get myself out of it.

I never once thought that I couldn’t make it happen, I just constantly kept asking the question ‘how do I make it happen.’

I kept asking it until I found a way.

If there is anything you want or need in your business right now, and you think it’s out of reach, maybe you’re just saying the wrong thing.

Maybe you’re not asking yourself the right question.

Instead of saying you can’t make it happen, start asking yourself ‘how can I make it happen’ and I promise you, your business will start to thrive.

You can start with with this mindset straight away!

If you’re wanting to come to SALONGROWTHCON 2019 because you know how much it will benefit you and your business, but you’re saying that you can’t make it happen…

Then flip it right now and ask instead ‘how can I make it happen?’

Become a problem solver in business, and keep going until you find a way.

… But how do we become motivated and how do we keep motivated each day?

Turns out that one of the main players in staying motivated, is that neurotransmitter everybody loves to talk about called Dopamine.

Dopamine has been thought of mainly in the past as the chemical responsible for pleasure, but more and more these days, there is evidence that Dopamine is actually responsible for encouraging us to act… either to achieve something good or to avoid something bad!

It simply isn’t there to just make us feel good.

Dopamine spikes for many reasons, such as foods, exercise, close relationships, but did you know that higher levels of dopamine are found in motivated and ambitious people?

This means that when you are motivated and achieving, you will have more dopamine releases and you will feel good!

Who doesn’t want to feel good, right?

Dopamine is also the main neurotransmitter that makes men and women feel good before and after sex.

The anticipation and build up of sex triggers dopamine releases and then afterwards… well, lets just say there’s a significant increase in Dopamine there too!

Having sex regularly causes us to maintain higher levels of dopamine, and so too does being in a state of motivation and inspiration.

If you want to feel like you do during sex, then get motivated in your daily life!

If you are feeling flat right now, then it may be because you’re not motivated, inspired (or having enough sex… or maybe all three), so you need to do something about it to increase your dopamine levels and start to feel GREAT!

I can’t help you with the sex part, but I can help you with becoming motivated and inspired beyond your imagination.

The event I am hosting in June this year called SALONGROWTHCON, runs for two days and has 23 speakers from the hair and beauty industry, who are the most motivational people imaginable… including the legendary Tabatha Coffey!

They have all achieved huge things, they have accomplished massive goals, they have helped so many people around the world.

Now, they want to share their knowledge with you! They want to motivate, inspire and excite you to succeed in your business and in your life beyond anything you could have imagined.

(A TEARJERKER) 😥

On Saturday morning, I had plans to meet my Team at Coaching HQ and deliver SALONGROWTHCON flyers to nearby salons…

The task was a simple one… let’s meet up, head to the salons, drop in some flyers, build awareness of our SALONGROWTHCON event, and then be home mid afternoon.

I woke up on the Saturday morning and said to my wife ‘so what’s the plans today?’

She told me she was taking our two boys (Jack who’s 6 and Oscar who’s 11 months) to see the Easter Bunny.

All is well in my mind… I mean, what kid doesn’t love seeing the Easter Bunny, right?

So I get ready to go and meet the Team, and then just as Im about to leave, Jack turns around to me and says ‘where are you going Daddy? You’re not going to work are you?’

I told him I was and that I’d be home again in the afternoon.

‘But Dad, I never see you anymore and we never do things together like we used to!’

My heart broke into a million pieces!

I have been working really long hours lately to get this SALONGROWTHCON event off the ground, and much like he misses me… I miss my family too!

I told him that I was going dropping off some things to different shops today and he could come with me if he wanted to!

He jumped at the chance and with a resounding ‘YES’, he ran upstairs to get dressed!

Whilst he was getting dressed, my wife said to me ‘You know Bill, last night, Milli (his cousin) said to him ‘what time is your Dad getting home?’

His reply “Not until late. I never see my Dad anymore!’

Again, my heart was crushed! I was devastated!

It played on my mind all day as the two of us went all through the Gold Coast dropping flyers off and saying hello to salons. We chased Pokemon together, stopped in and had burgers, I chased him around some of the shops playing tag…

… and generally tried to make it as fun and memorable as possible!

We had a great day together, but it did remind me how hard it is for business owners everywhere, every single day who try to pursue their dreams, whilst still trying to be their for their partners and children!

It is such a hard thing to do, and so hard to not have parent’s guilt!

For me, I know this is short term and I know that once we complete SALONGROWTHCON, and it’s a huge success, I can better provide for my family, their lives will be better for it and I can make sure I make up for the lost time with them.

Im a great Dad I think, and I always try my hardest to not only be there for them, but to set an example also about what it means to follow your passion, work hard, never give up and achieve your dreams!

I just think sometimes I need to remind myself of that, especially when confronted with it head on like I was with Jack.

I wanted to write this today as a shout out to all the entrepreneurs out their who know what it feels like to have this guilt, and to let you know that it’s ok.

There are many, many people who have it too, but as long as you are 100% present when you are with your loved ones, you have good intent, you are trying your best and they know you love them…

Then keep going!

You will be the role model one day that they look up to for the rest of their lives!

After working 10 years in the industry, starting my own franchise system and opening 15 salons… in January 2018, I started my new journey in business coaching.

As I write this letter in January 2019, it’s now been 12 months, since beginning this venture, and the lessons I have learned in this time, have been INCREDIBLE!!

You see, when you work with over 100 salon owners at such an intimate level, learning all about their numbers, their staff, their dreams, their goals, their kids, wives, husbands… and even their pets…

… you start to pick up on the things that are unique and different, but also the things that are ALWAYS consistent – no matter who it is and what business they’re in!!

So I sat down late last year and wrote down all the consistent things I see with the majority of Salon Owners…

Mindset and Self Doubt: Almost all Salon Owners I speak to, have MASSIVE goals and dreams, but have been told in the past, or have consistently told themselves in the past, that they’re not good enough, they’re not smart enough, they don’t have what it takes, they’re going to look silly if they try… and most Salon Owners believe it.

THE TRUTHS

Work/Life Balance: Across every single person, the biggest complaint I get is that as a Salon Owner, they cannot get time for work/life balance. Whether it’s more time with the kids, more time with the partner, more time with friends, more time for themselves – most don’t get it, and don’t know how to change it! Most want to get off the tools, make more money and do more to enjoy their lives instead of always being in the salon!

Profit: The sad reality is that most Salon Owners right now, don’t make profit, or are barely making ends meet. Worst of all, most have been like this for so long, and they are just stuck on this hamster wheel, working their backside off, but never getting the deserved rewards.

Marketing: 99% of the Salon Owners I come across see marketing as their biggest challenge. They get advice from all the wrong places, waste tonnes of money, and then end up dejected, defeated and back at square one… with less money in their bank. Because of this, most don’t know how to effectively grow their business, which means no profit, which means no work/life balance and negative mindsets!

THE SOLUTION

After finally putting all this to paper, and recognising the truth about the majority of Salon Owners, I wanted to help – but on a…

BIGGER SCALE,

With MORE EXCITEMENT and;

WAY MORE FUN THAN EVER BEFORE….

… and by bringing the very best minds on SALON GROWTH, to ONE single location, to deliver their VERY BEST content and give every Salon Owner who attends, the VERY BEST SHOT to make this year, their best year EVER!!

Empowering Salon Owners with business knowledge is one of the most important challenges facing the industry today and so it is critical we create resources and events that support Salon Owners to succeed!

YOU’RE INVITED

SALONGROWTHCON 2019, was created exactly for this reason, and so I want you to join me, along with 1,500 other Salon Owners, who are fired up, pumped and ready to take MASSIVE action at this HUGE two day event!

This event is guaranteed to change your business and your life, so do not hesitate and do not miss out! Tickets will sell out!